Val stepped beside me, her grin sharp and merciless. “Orders, Captain.”
I didn’t take my eyes off the red horizon.
“Board her by force,” I said.
Val clicked her tongue. “You got it.”
And with that, she was shouting orders, and we were moving once more as the Bane slowed to a near stop, likely having dropped her anchor just before reaching the red and seeing the trap we’d set. Her captain likely took us for easy prey, being anchored for what a captain with half a brain would leave her ship vulnerable like that.
A desperate one.
That would always be the answer.
Red mist clung to the air around us, rising.
“It worked,” Emille said.
“It worked.” Dilly echoed his disbelief.
“Get the boats ready, Inu,” I said, turning to the silent woman next to me.
She nodded and met my eyes. Her dark ones shining with emotion, neither of us dared to name.
“The last one,” she said.
“The last one,” I promised.
She turned without another word and began work on the newest set of lifeboats we’d accumulated. We were monsters all the same, but we would spare life where we could.
The Bane groaned as she stilled next to us, and the shouts and cries of the sailors aboard cut through the mist like a knife.
“Likely two minutes left,” Dilly said quietly.
“Then we will make this quick,” I said.
Val and several others on the crew went to work immediately, boarding the Bane and subduing the crew. It was likely the easiest time they had had of it, as none of them were present enough to fight. Instead, most of them were on their knees or leaning overboard, seeing visions that were not there.
As long as I lived, I would remember their cries. The grown men begged for the people they loved to be spared. I’d done this to them.
Within minutes, the Wraith’s crew had every member of the Bane tied and placed on deck. Most were disturbingly quiet, staring straight ahead without blinking. Others still cried softly. Those five minutes cost them more than most knew in a lifetime.
I wished I were more sorry than I was, but the truth is, I would have done it again. Maybe I was already the monster Bash had spent years crafting for himself. I doubted he’d be proud of whatever I was now. Yet I wouldn’t regret it.
Val appeared at the end of the plank on the Bane’s side and bowed her head.
“The Bane is yours, Captain,” she said.
The air smelt of ash, and metal bit at my tongue.
“See that the boats are readied and begin unloading the crew into them,” I ordered.
She nodded and practically pranced across the plank. If I didn’t trust her as much as I did, I might have been worried about her bloodlust.
Maybe I’d worry about it later.
For now, I lowered my mask and crossed the threshold over blood red water and met the eyes of Phineus Grangely.
I’d known him since I was a young girl. He’d snuck me chocolates when my mother said I’d had enough. His laugh was loud and obnoxious, just like the white mustache curled up over his mouth, but his eyes were always kind. Except now. They were hollow–still seeing visions that would exist forever in his mind.
